complement of dopaminergic neurons, and only minor GDNF: A Treatment for Parkinson’s Disease? losses of spinal motor neurons. Thus, the postulated Not long after success with ciliary neurotrophic factor role of GDNF as a developmentally important target(CNTF; Lin et al., 1989), Leu-Fen Lin and Frank Collins derived neurotrophic factor for nigral dopaminergic neurepeated the arduous task of char...

Fetal-neonatal iron deficiency alters hippocampal neuronal morphology, reduces its volume, and is associated with acute and long-term learning impairments. However, neither the effects of early-life iron deficiency anemia on growth, differentiation, and survival of hippocampal neurons nor regulation of the neurotrophic factors that mediate these processes has been investigated. We compared hipp...

Although an excitotoxic mechanism of neuronal injury has been proposed to play a role in chronic neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, and neurotrophic factors have been put forward as potential therapeutic agents, direct evidence is lacking. Taking advantage of the fact that mutations in the presenilin-1 (PS1) gene are causally linked to many cases of early-onset inherited A...

Molecular signaling of sympathetic innervation of myocardium is an unresolved issue. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of neurotrophic factors on sympathetic neurite growth towards cardiomyocytes. Cardiomyocytes (CMs) and sympathetic neurons (SNs) were isolated from neonatal rat hearts and superior cervical ganglia, and were co-cultured, either in a random or localized way...

It has been shown that abnormalities in axonal transport occur in several mouse models with motoneuron degeneration and also in the human disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In this report, we have examined the potential of neurotrophic factors to act on axonal transport properties in a mouse mutant, progressive motor neuronopathy (pmn). This mouse mutant has been characterized as a "dying-b...

We have reported that clinically relevant concentrations of valproic acid (VPA) up-regulate the G-protein-coupled melatonin MT1 receptor in rat C6 glioma cells. To determine whether this effect occurs in vivo, the effects of chronic VPA treatment on the expression of both melatonin receptor subtypes, MT1 and MT2, were examined in the rat brain. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (R...

BACKGROUND Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT), a phytoestrogen-enriched Chinese herbal formula, serves as dietary supplement in stimulating the "Blood" functions of menopausal women. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory, "Blood" has a strong relationship with brain activities. Previous studies supported that some ingredients of DBT possessed neuronal beneficial functions. Therefore, the neurotrop...

Objective: Few studies have been conducted on variations of the central nervous system of diabetic patients and much fewer investigations done on the cerebellum of diabetes patients. The current research aims to investigate the effect of endurance training on neurotrophic factors affecting the cerebellum in the diabetic rat. Materials and Methods: This study is experimental.Twenty Wistar rat w...